I am a post-doctoral Fellow with the Smithsonian Institution’s Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) network, a growing program designed to monitor human impacts on coastal ecosystems across the globe. My fellowship is a joint appointment with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Florida. I am interested in understanding how local and global human impacts affect the structure and function of calcifier-dominated ecosystems, primarily coral and oyster reefs. My research uses a combination of field and laboratory experiments to understand how reef-building algae and corals, and the communities they build, are affected by increasing temperatures, decreasing pH (ocean acidification) and decreasing oxygen levels (hypoxia). I am particularly interested in determining if organisms from highly variable habitats can acclimatize to stressful conditions and are thus more resilient to global change stressors such as warming and ocean acidification. I conduct my research at three MarineGEO sites (Bocas del Toro, Panama; Carrie Bow Cay, Belize; Indian River Lagoon, Florida) and in Coiba on the Pacific coast of Panama. My ongoing research will explore the combined effects of acidification, warming and hypoxia on reef-building corals in Florida, specifically focusing on tolerances and differential survival under stressful conditions.
Education
2016Ph.D. Marine Biology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
2011 M.S. Biology,California State University, Northridge
2007 Professional M.S. Marine Biology, Northeastern University (Three Seas Program)
2005 B.A. Biology, Colby College
Research Interests
Effects of global change, including ocean acidification, warming, and hypoxia, on the biology and ecology of coral and oyster reefs.
